The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s management of traffic in Mr X’s locale on home football match days. This is because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant investigation.
The complaint
The complainant, who I refer to as Mr X, complains about the Council’s poor management of traffic in his locale during home football matches. He says it has not done a proper risk assessment and its actions made parking issues worse.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start an investigation if the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered information provided by Mr X, including the Council’s response to his complaint.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X complained to the Council about its management of traffic during home football games. The Council responded to explain why, on a particular day, there had been traffic management problems, caused by factors it had been unaware of beforehand. It said it was not obliged to produce risk assessments but that it would continue to work with all agencies, including the football club and the police to avoid similar problems in the future.
While Mr X may be dissatisfied with the Council’s response, we do not investigate every complaint we receive and there are insufficient grounds to warrant an investigation in this case.
Final decision
We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint because we are unlikely to find evidence of fault by the Council sufficient to warrant investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman